NYC - Girls weekend! Night 3, Day 3

---

After the long day, Candice and I decided we were just going to chill, while Lizzie met up with a friend for drinks. It was nice to be able to catch up with my bestie! She and are complete opposites, but were roommates from Day 1 all through college and just click. One thing we do have in common: chilling. We are loners who value our private time and we are content just to sit back, chat and just take in the moment. She lives in Mississippi and I live... well, all over the bloody place. I don't often get back to see her, but I try. I miss you all the time Can! Hope you continue to enjoy my blogs!

So, in that vein, we found ourselves going up the street to get pedicures. Excellent idea (my toenails were in desperate need for a makeover...). While we were getting our pedicures and leg massages, we saw a couple of women come in for 10-minute massages. UM! YES PLEASE! Seriously, that 10 minutes was like the best 10 minutes of my life. Perfect way to spend my last day of vacation. Afterwards, we walked towards Times Square, because, you know, you have to see Times Square, especially because we were so close. So, we took a good photo, admired some of the playhouses in this area towards Broadway, and headed back. But we could not leave New York without having New York style pizza. So, we stopped at a pizza place across from our hotel; we were not really hungry, but we each got our own slice so we could show we did it (and I had a cold!). Yummy! Totally my favorite types of pizza - thin, hot, cheesy, with grease dribbling down your arm... life really does not get much better than it did for those two hours that night.

I was so sad to see Candice and Lizzie leave the next day. I don't get to see them too often and I was upset that I was fighting a head cold during the days we finally did get to hang out. But we had a good time and it was great to catch up. They headed to the airport and wound up catching an earlier flight, before heading to the storm ravaged south...

Me, I had big plans this day, but ultimately, sleeping in and taking a long shower outweighed most of my options. So I took my time and repacked all my stuff before checking out. Then I took the subway to the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side. You can take the blue line directly to 81st and the exit accesses the museum itself I waited in a line (seriously, one of the major tourist centers in NYC and they have two people taking tickets??) and paid $27 to go inside. Now, apparently, you can request to pay less, but why bother. And I paid and extra $6 to see the show at the Planetarium.

I booked the next show available so I made my way to the Hayden Planetarium while checking out the display of our galaxy on the way. I love learning about space - it is so fascinating, but there was so much to see! Fortunately, the planetarium was not too full so I got a seat by myself and was able to kick back and watch the 30 minute show. O. M. G. Incredible!!! Basically, there is a huge dome above your head and the theme is "Dark Universe" where they focus on what lies between the stars in the universe. It is amazing how many stars are mapped. They give you visualization by starting you at earth and expanding the universe so it seems like you're flying out. There are trajectories of the theoretical Big Bang debris paths. You can see the size, proximity and shape of our galaxy as well as many others. You get a real sense of just how small we are in the universe. Just absolutely amazing - definitely do not leave the museum without checking this out!

After the show, I wandered around the rest of the museum. There is just way too much to see. The first hall I came to was kind of nice, with wall displays of various forms of research that are performed here - it was interesting to read about the people and what they are doing. I quickly toured the Native American hall, which was interesting, but I just had no time because I had one place that I had to see before I left. After walking around there, and through the Hall of African Mammals, and the African people hall (actually quite interesting), I made my way up to the fourth floor, even though this was not actually where my ultimate goal was. But i'm here, so I may as well see the dinosaurs. The whole fourth floor is devoted to the development of vertebrate animals and the dinosaurs are just the main attraction. The display of the fossils, such as the T-Rex, truly are incredible.

My final goal was to go down to see the Hall of Meteorites and Hall of Minerals on the first floor. As a geologist, I was looking forward most to this section. I passed through the environmental display of New York and of general flora (such as the Sequoia tree and agricultural displays). Finally I came to see where the meteorites were displayed - I was so looking forward to this but I have to say that I was not overly impressed with the display. It seemed boring - pieces of meteorites with a little blurb next time them all spaced out along the wall that looked like it was designed in the 70's. I think they can improve this room. I entered the Hall of the minerals and was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of displays - there were hundreds of minerals and rocks on display, many repetitive pieces. I actually did not focus on the major exhibits (Star of India? didn't see), but enjoyed looking at the types of minerals and variations shown. There was also a small TV presentation on mining for gold - it was an excuse to sit and rest for a few. My favorite part was actually checking out the center of the hall were various types of minerals were displayed in a circular pattern and the announcer discussed in detail the various types - very educational if you take the time and can hear it over people talking.

All in all, I was very impressed by the Museum. I actually visited it on a whim so I really didn't know that much about it. I guess they have so many artifacts and display pieces they have to rotate was is on display every so often. It was easy to access and while it was busy, it was so big that it was not a complete burden.

After this I headed back to town, intending to do some shopping, but I had trouble finding the place I really needed - I just wanted to buy some dvd's because they can be very expensive and there is little to choose from in the middle east. I found myself directly in Times Square, with people trying to sell you stuff and getting mad if you ignore them. "The least you can do is talk to me." "Yeah, well the least you can do is let me walking down the street without harassing me!" (Sorry - I am actually from NY just not the city.) I finally gave up and headed back to the hotel as I was getting tired. on the way, I passed by a DVD Depot and went in - it was totally creepy. The stuff I was even remotely interested in was in a corner by the door and ridiculously expensive; the rest of the stuff appeared to be adult themed, so I left. Only I felt the guy in there come out after I did and I heard him shout "What? You change your miiiind? Hey! You change your miiiiind?" He proceeded to follow me to the next block when I lost him. Ugh! Kind of funny though.

I actually stopped for another slice of pizza because I couldn't find a place that I wanted to eat that was not packed to the brim. Then I waited in my hotel until it was time to leave. Goodbye NY! I'll be back again one day soon!!!!

---

Photos

New York Pizza
Proof that we hungrily gobbled it down

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Girls, girls,girls
The city never sleeps